


The Right Decision

by poppyfields13



Series: The Right Decision [1]
Category: American Idol RPF, Disney RPF, Jonas Brothers
Genre: Crack Pairing, Fluff, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-07
Updated: 2008-11-07
Packaged: 2017-10-21 14:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppyfields13/pseuds/poppyfields13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Joe and David become friends, David is both surprised and scared that they have more in common than anyone else knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Decision

**Author's Note:**

> The characters within are only based on real people, this is purely fiction and I am not implying events within to be occurrences in real life.

David Archuleta had met the Jonas Brothers at the American Idol finale, but he had hardly had time to speak to them. He had actually been really excited to meet them. He had wanted their autographs but all he had gotten was a quick handshake before he had been rushed onstage and then he hadn’t seen them again the rest of the night. Although after the results he had been too occupied to even think about it. And he hadn’t really thought about it since.

When he and David Cook went to the Teen Choice Awards he suddenly had the opportunity to meet them again. Miley Cyrus came bouncing up to him. “Hi David!” she said with more energy than he thought was possible for someone who was as busy as she was that night.

“Hey,” he replied, a little shyly. He liked her a lot but her exuberance kind of overwhelmed him.

“The Jonas Brothers were just asking me about you. They want to meet you.” She made a face, “Well, actually, it was just Joe,” she pointed behind her and David glanced in that direction to find a tan dark haired boy peering back at him.

“Oh. Okay…”

“Yeah, you should go say hi! But I have to go right now, so see you later!” She rushed off and David was left standing there, staring back at Joe Jonas. Slowly he walked up to him and he recognized the oldest Jonas Brother, Kevin was with him.

“Um, hi,” he said nervously.

“Hey David,” Joe said sticking his hand out. David returned the gesture and as he grasped the other boy’s hand he was suddenly embarrassed at how sweaty his palm was. Joe didn’t seem to notice. Instead he went on to introduce himself and Kevin. David just nodded since he obviously already knew who they were. He still actually wanted an autograph but he felt really silly about asking for one. So he didn’t.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you!” Joe was saying. “You were so good on American Idol.”

“Did you watch it?” David asked, and then instantly felt stupid. Duh, he wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t watch it.

“Yes! Every week. It’s one of my favourite shows.”

David laughed nervously. “Oh, well, um, thanks.”

“Joe voted for you, like, ten thousand times.” Kevin spoke up.

Joe flicked his hand dismissively, “At least I didn’t vote for Cook!”

“Aw, but Cook’s awesome!” David said defending the man he had come to think of as a big brother.

“See, even David Archuleta says so,” Kevin said smugly.

“Oh well… I mean, he’s okay, but you’re still better, well in my opinion…” Joe seemed a bit flustered.

David didn’t really mind that he liked him more than Cook; he was extremely flattered and tried to tell him so, but Kevin pulled on Joe’s arm, “Okay, dude, stop fan-girling, we gotta go.”

He waved at David as he tugged Joe’s arm away. “See ya,” Joe said. He followed Kevin and David watched them leave. David waved back enthusiastically when Joe turned around and waved before they completely disappeared.

♥

He was getting ready to leave with Cook when Joe popped up in front of him. “Hey!” he said eagerly.

“Oh hey,” David said, smiling. “Um, we were just leaving.”

Joe looked over to Cook as if seeing him for the first time. “Oh sorry! Hi.”

Cook chuckled, “Hey there,” he glanced over at David mischievously, “Archie loves your videos. He watches them all the time on the bus.”

Joe grinned, turning back to David, “Seriously?”

“Not all the time!” he said, feeling his face burning up. He pushed Cook, but not very hard. Cook just laughed and insisted that David did in fact watch the Jonas Brothers YouTube videos 24/7. “They’re funny!”

“That’s awesome,” Joe said. “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some time. You know – after our tours are finished and everything. I’ll give you my number.”

He held out his hand and looked at David expectantly. David stared at him dumbly for a moment before realising he wanted David’s cell phone. Mutely he took it from his pocket and handed it to the older boy. Joe tapped his number in and then handed the phone back, smiling. “Gimme a text whenever,” he said. “See you guys!” Then he was running off.

David stared down at the phone in his hand. That was weird. He looked back up to find Cook watching him with an amused expression on his face. “What?” David asked, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. He could feel the heat lingering in his cheeks.

“Are you gonna text him?” Cook asked.

“What – now?” He made a face.

“No, not now,” Cook said rolling his eyes. “Isn’t the rule, like, you have to wait a few days?”

“What are you talking about?”

Cook shook his head. “Oh Arch… you have a lot to learn.”

David’s expression emanated confusion. “I don’t know what you mean…”

“Just promise me you’ll text him,” Cook said, laying a hand on David’s shoulder and looking at him seriously.

“But why?”

“Because I say you should. And I’m older so you have to do what I say.”

David snorted but didn’t respond, he couldn’t understand why Cook was making such a big deal about it. It was just a guy’s phone number. It didn’t mean anything.

♥

Still, Cook kept pestering him about it, so after a week he finally gave in and sent Joe a text. It took him about five minutes to compose it and he didn’t know why he found it so difficult. In the end all he came up with was, ‘Hi, what’s up?’

He was kind of surprised that the reply was almost instantaneous. ‘hey! the usual. u?’ it said. David had been so concerned with actually sending the text he hadn’t thought about what he would say if Joe replied. It took him even longer to respond than it had for him to send the first text. He figured that ‘the usual’ meant the same sort of stuff David was doing each day, since Joe was on tour too. He sent a message back saying he was really tired but happy to be on tour – the really formal, polite kind of thing he said in almost every interview he had done. After that he was sure Joe would give up on him for being such a bore. But he seemed pretty persistent, somehow managing to get David literally giggling at the jokes he was texting.

From then on, somehow, they managed to form a strange sort of friendship through constant text messaging. Which then lead to late night phone calls, and when they could, AIM conversations.

One day, as David was watching the latest instalment of the Nick J show, he was shocked, embarrassed, and delighted when Joe gave him a shout out. Unfortunately, Cook had chosen that moment to walk past and saw the whole thing as he peered over David’s shoulder. “Aww, how adorable,” he had cooed.

David snapped down his laptop, feeling irrationally as if he had been caught in the act of something taboo. He blushed, “What are you talking about?” he asked uncharacteristically hotly. He instantly regretted it, as his outburst seemed to do nothing but fuel Cook’s curiosity.

“What’s the matter Arch?” he asked, concerned. And because he was being so nice about it, that just made David feel even lousier about snapping at him for no real reason. But he was still annoyed too. It felt like Cook was always making such a big deal about his… relationship with Joe and David really didn’t like to think about that at all. When he did his thoughts lead to places he knew they shouldn’t.

♥

When the tour ended, David was sad. Perhaps not as sad as he thought he would be, he _did_ have a lot to look forward to, and he couldn’t help but think how excited he was to see Joe again. The Jonas Brothers had finished their tour about a week before and David felt stupid doing it, but he wondered if Joe was waiting for the American Idol tour to finish so they could see each other again.

After being at home in Utah for a few days to rest, David had to go to LA to work on some stuff for his album. He casually let it slip to Joe during a phone conversation, and was very pleased when Joe said, “Hey great! You can come over and hang out at our new place!”

He was staying in a hotel with his dad and he said it was alright for David to go to the Jonas Brothers’ house, as long as he dropped David off and picked him up. David thought this was kind of embarrassing, but he didn’t know why. If it was different circumstances he was sure he wouldn’t mind. They took a taxi there and his dad made the taxi driver wait until someone let David through the gate. David turned around waving to his dad before practically sprinting up the footpath.

Joe let him in, a huge grin on his face, and David grinned back. It was kind of weird that their friendship was based on text messages and phone calls, and this was only the second time they had met in person. David was suddenly afraid they wouldn’t have anything to say to each other face to face, but he really didn’t need to worry because Joe started to ramble as he showed David around their house.

Finally, Joe led him into a living area where Nick and Kevin were playing video games. They greeted David enthusiastically, but quickly turned back to the TV set. Joe smirked at David, “Do you wanna go somewhere else?” he had to raise his voice because the TV was really loud.

“Uh… okay,” David said uncertainly. They walked into the kitchen and David sat down on a bench stool as Joe went to the fridge to get them both a coke. Then Joe asked what kind of pizza David liked. “Anything,” David replied. Joe smiled, dialling the number for the pizza place.

♥

Later, as they all sat around eating pizza, they were talking about how annoying fan-girls could be. It was all in good fun. They all knew that without their fans they were nothing, but it was nice they found common ground in discussing the fact their fans could be slightly unhinged at times.

Joe was just retelling the story of one especially hyperactive fan who had given him a pair of underwear with her number on them, he shuddered dramatically and they all laughed. Well, David also blushed and said “Gosh!”

But when Kevin said: “Come on, Joe. You know you love it.” David saw a dark shadow momentarily cross his face, but then Joe was grinning again and rolling his eyes.

After they had finished their pizza, Kevin and Nick went back to playing video games. Joe turned to David, “Do you want to see my room?” he asked.

David shrugged, “Sure.”

Joe stood up and started walking to the door. David started to follow. “Hey, where are you guys going?” Kevin asked. David suddenly realised that it might look… suspicious that he was going up to Joe’s _bedroom_ with him. He felt his face burning. But Joe just said something about how boring they were being and made it seem totally normal that they were going off together _alone_ somewhere.

Joe’s room was enormous. That was David’s first thought. He watched Joe go and flop onto his huge bed and flip on the TV, he surfed for a moment before settling on a music channel and turning the volume down low. Then he turned back to David who was still standing awkwardly by the door. He grinned and patted the empty spot beside him. David didn’t want to seem rude, so he sat on the edge of the bed even though he felt it was a bad idea.

“Are you okay, dude?” Joe asked him.

“Huh? Oh yeah. You have a – um… nice bed.” David wanted to smack himself for saying that. He closed his eyes and willed himself to relax.

Joe was speaking again, “So… you’re, like, pretty religious huh?”

“Uh… I guess…” David had no idea why Joe was asking.

“Do you ever feel, like, suffocated by it?”

“Uhm… my religion?”

“Yeah.”

“Not really, I mean, it helps me a lot. I don’t think I could get through everything I have without it.” David said, finally able to form a relatively coherent sentence.

Joe nodded thoughtfully before he spoke again. “Well, not just religion but… life in general. Being in the spotlight, you know? And then when I’m with my family… I want to be able to be who I am… but then, because of our religion. I can’t really.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry, I’m probably not making a lot of sense. It doesn’t matter.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I mean… it makes sense. I… I understand. I kind of feel like that too. Sometimes.”

“Really?” Joe seemed kind of incredulous.

David hung his head. “It’s a scary feeling. I guess I kind of push it out of the way. I try not to think about it. Anyway, I’m so grateful for the opportunities I have, I… I shouldn’t complain.”

“But it _does_ get hard when you’re expected to… uh, like, be normal.”

David looked up and studied Joe’s eyes intently. He didn’t know if he should let himself believe that the two of them were talking about the same thing.

Joe unwaveringly stared back. “Like, when magazines and that keep asking you… about girls. And you just want to scream at them, but you can’t. And then people want to know what’s wrong with you when they see you are upset about it… and you just can’t do anything. Is that… do you feel like that?”

David nodded slowly. “Yes,” he whispered, feeling himself choke up. His eyes burnt and he couldn’t believe he was about to cry. It was a mixture of feelings: bad memories resurfacing, his constant fear about his own family and _finally_ , relief that he had found someone he could relate to.

He turned away and coughed awkwardly, trying to cover up his tears and will them to disappear.

“Hey David, I’m sorry,” he heard Joe say and he stiffened as he felt the other boy sit up and place a hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to make you so upset. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I need to just deal with my issues on my own –”

“No,” David said suddenly, turning back to face him. “I’m uhm… glad you told me. I mean, I’m glad I’ve found someone… you know. I mean, not like that! Just a friend. If you want to be friends that is.” He forced himself to stop talking.

He hadn’t really noticed how close Joe had moved. And the older boy was now smiling, which was also new. He started leaning his face forward and David was struck dumb by what he was sure was about to happen. He had never been kissed before, but he knew what was coming by the look in Joe’s eyes and how they kept flicking to David’s mouth.

A part of David’s brain was screaming at himself to pull away. This was not how his first kiss was meant to be. Not with another boy. It was wrong. But the other part, the part he assumed was much larger, was staring back at Joe’s lips curiously. It was making his heart pound in anticipation. And then he couldn’t think about it anymore because their lips were touching and David had closed his eyes. And then Joe’s hand grabbed his hand and he let his fingers be intertwined with the older boy’s.

David’s cell phone rang then and they jumped apart, looking around the room as if expecting to see someone watching them. When David had taken a few seconds to calm down from the shock, he answered his phone. It was his dad telling him it was probably time to come back and get some rest so he would come and pick him up soon. To be honest, David was a little relieved at the interruption because now he just felt completely awkward.

“Uh… I have to go,” he stuttered, staring at Joe’s shoes. “My dad’s coming to get me soon.”

“Okay… um, wanna hang out again some time?”

David bit his lip, thinking, but then he nodded.

“Cool.”

Did it mean that Joe liked him? Like liked him? As… a boyfriend or something? Or had he only kissed David because they were in the same boat and he didn’t really have any other options?

They walked down the stairs quietly and sat watching Nick and Kevin with their video games until his dad arrived. He practically sprinted to the door when his dad texted him saying he was outside waiting. He quickly, politely, thanked them for having him. Joe nearly had to run after him as he made his way to the front door. “I’ll text you, okay?” He wasn’t smiling as he said it, he looked worried. David forced a smile back because he didn’t want Joe to think he had done anything wrong, because he really hadn’t.

“Okay!” he called back with exaggerated enthusiasm, “See ya!”

“Did you have a nice time?” his dad asked when he reached the taxi.

“Yes, it was fun,” David replied as he got in the car.

“What’d you do?”

“Uh…” David was glad it was dark because he knew his face was burning up again, “we just hung out… ate pizza and played video games… that kind of thing.”

His dad nodded, “That’s good. You should probably go straight to bed when we get back to the hotel; you’ve got an early start.”

“Okay,” David said, turning to watch the streetlights whiz past outside the window. What would his dad say if he actually knew what David had done? David was sure he would be disappointed and he really didn’t want to disappoint his dad. And then there was the fact that God had blessed him so much, he didn’t want to throw that all away in a moment of weakness.

But Joe, well God wasn’t punishing him for being… gay. So maybe he wouldn’t punish David either? Maybe all those things he had secretly read on the internet were true, about gay Christians and how they said that they know God still loves them, and would never punish them for loving someone else. Maybe it wasn’t as ridiculous as his dad thought. He loved his dad, and trusted him. But maybe just this once his dad was wrong.

♥

David couldn’t believe what he was doing. He had some free time for lunch and he was using it to call David Cook. He wasn’t even sure if Cook would answer or have time to talk to him, he was supposed to be really busy. David didn’t really want to unload his problems onto Cook either, but he was the only person David felt he could talk to about this.

“Hello?” Cook’s voice answered.

“Oh, hi Cook. It’s David.”

“Archie! What’s up?”

“Um… can you talk?”

“Sure, I’m having a break.”

“Me too!”

Cook laughed. “That’s great, Arch. So what’s bothering you?”

“How do you know something’s bothering me?”

“I can tell.”

David sighed. “Um… you know Joe Jonas?”

“Yeeess,” Cook said in an annoyingly knowing voice.

David just decided to spit it out. “We kissed.” There was a pause. “Cook?” he asked frantically.

“I’m here. You know Archie, I don’t know what you expected, but I’m not surprised.”

“You’re not?”

“No, I saw this coming since the TCAs.”

“Oh gosh… do you think anyone else knows?”

Cook chuckled, “Nah. Just me. I’m awesomely intuitive like that.”

David groaned. “So what should I doooooo?”

“Why are you asking me? I can’t answer that.”

“Why not?”

“Archie,” Cook said warningly. “Well… how do you feel about it? Did you like it?”

“Oh man, I can’t believe you’re asking me that!”

“Hey, you called me!”

“I know but… yeah. I guess I liked it.”

“Okay, then. So what’s the problem?”

“It’s not that simple!”

“Why can’t it be?”

“I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, I mean… is it wrong?”

“I don’t think so. But I guess I can’t answer that for you either… I guess that’s between you and God,” Cook said.

“You’re not supposed say that,” David replied. “You’re supposed to tell me it is absolutely right and that I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Archie, you have to decide that for yourself. I mean… does it feel wrong to you?”

David thought for a minute and then shook his head with determination, even though he knew Cook couldn’t see him. “No… it feels really right.”

“I guess that’s your answer then.”

David smiled, “I guess so. Thanks Cook.”

“You’re welcome.”

♥

A week later and David was standing out side the Jonas Brothers house waiting for someone to open the door. He hadn’t spoken to Joe very much over the week, but that was mainly because he was so busy. But he had arranged to visit him on his night off. And even though his dad hadn’t been too keen on the idea he had let him. When Joe opened the door he smiled at David, and he grinned back. He followed Joe inside and politely said hello to Nick and Kevin who were congregating in the kitchen this time before going up to Joe’s room.

They sat on the edge of his bed and Joe grabbed his hand. David only flinched a little, but he squeezed Joe’s hand in return. “I really like you.”

“Me too,” David said shyly.

“So… you’re okay with…” he held their intertwined hands up.

“Yeah, I mean, I think so… it’s kinda scary. But I want to try it.”

“David, before I met you, I wasn’t sure either. But then when I did meet you, I didn’t believe it could be wrong anymore.”

David thought back to what Cook said and he nodded his head in agreement. “I don’t… I don’t believe it’s wrong either.” He grinned. “I liked kissing you too much.”

Joe laughed, “Really? Wanna do it again?”

“Definitely.”


End file.
